Human Instinct

Whether we recognise it or not instinct shapes our daily lives. It fashions the decisions we make moment to moment and our interaction with the people around us. From the ambition to be successful in our careers to what we will have for lunch today instinct is the invisible motivating force that shapes our world.

Our instincts have been programmed into us since the dawn of modern man. They played a huge role in our successful evolution as a species. The fight or flight response and the drive to reproduce were crucial to the survival of our caveman ancestors. But how well do these instincts, our most basic modes of interacting with the world, equip us for modern life? We are driven to pursue material wealth and status. We have an innate impulse to find a mate, to fight to protect our young and to find food and shelter. Do our instincts help or hinder us as we deal with large anonymous cities, low-level stress, fast food, addictive drugs, and the fracturing of communal life?

In Human Instinct, which accompanies a BBC television series, Robert Winston takes us to the forefront of modern science in search of the answers to these questions and more. Through this accessible and entertaining scientific journey we explore our instincts and gain a deeper insight into the wonderful complexity of human nature.

About the Author

Robert Winston is one of the country's best-known scientists. As Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, University of London, and Director of NHS Research and Development and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital, he has made advances in fertility medicine and been a leading voice in the debate on genetic engineering. His television series, including Your Life in Their Hands, Making Babies, The Human Body, Superhuman and A Child Against All Odds have made him a household name across Britain. He became a life peer as Baron Winston, of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in 1995.